Culinary boot camp: Enlist your school kitchen staff now

LiveWell Colorado has officially launched its online registration site for the 2011 Cook for America Culinary

Boot Camp series.  This year, LiveWell Colorado will be offering eight boot camps and training 192 school cafeteria workers from across the state.

Consider letting your district’s food service director or your own school cooks know about boot camp. We’ve heard it’s a fun way for cooks to learn how to cook healthy food to scale. School districts with at least 40 percent of their students eligible for free and reduced lunch will have registration priority.

Learn more about the 2011 culinary boot camp program, including registration information and deadlines.

Boot camp is a five-day, hands-on training focusing on the fundamentals of scratch cooking, hosted by LiveWell Colorado and The Colorado Health Foundation.

The Cook for America Culinary Boot Camp training will focus on creating healthy and delicious school meals, an essential ingredient in the fight against childhood obesity. The leaders for all Cook for America programs are two highly respected chefs, Kate Adamick and Andrea Martin. They have created curriculum that includes topics such as scratch cooking techniques, recipe and menu development, universal breakfast strategies, commodities ordering and much more.

Participants will be equipped with the training, empowerment and inspiration to enable them to incorporate scratch cooking into their own school food programs. All participants will be reimbursed for their travel, receive free lodging – if necessary, and enjoy breakfast and lunch each day of the training. All necessary course materials will be provided.

Registration is open to school food service directors. Directors may also invite one additional food service staff member in a leadership role, such as a supervisor or manager. If directors are not able to attend, they may send an assistant director, supervisor or similar high-level staff person or designee in their place. Registration will be limited to a total of two staff members per district

About our First Person series:

First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others trying to improve public education. Read our submission guidelines here.